I don't think it's exactly the left that are gunning for him with this tack, though I'm sure there are some.

Well Suzanne Moore in the Grauniad used the term "brocialism" the other day, apparently without even trying to be funny or ironic, and Helen Lewis in TNS was fulminating about the lack of women in the four "top roles" in the shadow cabinet - while calling the rest of the cabinet, which is 51% female - "backfill".

Now Corbyn has said he's going to make education and health his top priorities, so that makes those two roles pretty "top", doesn't it? The idea that Foreign Sec is one of the most important jobs in government dates back to a time when Britain had about a bazillion times more global clout than it does now, and as a pacifist and anti-imperialist, Corbyn is surely looking to move on from that legacy rather than cling on to it?

Babs - yes, I agree there is surely some ideal middle ground between all-spin-no-substance and being almost wilfully media-naive, but perhaps he and his team will tighten their act up a bit as he starts getting used to this level of scrutiny.

I can't remember - was the shadow cabinet announced all at once, or were the supposedly 'top roles' announced prior to the rest? I thought that was part of the furore, that the initial jobs announced were all given to men, thus playing along with the idea that those were the top roles.

The national anthem question is a bit difficult. I really don't want Corbyn to become massively unpopular over something so meaningless. On the other hand, it's vastly depressing if a lot of people (some of whom might have quite decent views in other areas) are vexed enough about something so ridiculous to hate Corbyn as a result.

It's just another register of middle England's absurdist post empire pathology (further to Bake Off, Strictly, Churchill etc). England is like a fidgetting rose-coloured glasses housewife who continues to cook more and more elabourate dinners for the 'wonderful husband' who abandoned her years previously after years of abuse. The more the crown estate is sold off to China and Russia the more we love the monarchy. As the UK's economic and politcial status wanes union jack bunting is decorated in a delusional attempt to re-live the imagined (and it is an imagining a past to a large extent) good times.

Exactly. What worries me is that it seems the Corbyn leadership didn't see this media storm coming, and pre-empt it with a statement about the importance of appointing women to senior roles (and maybe an idea of how many women would be in the shadow cabinet - it's about a 50-50 gender split, isn't it?), rather than letting the right wing press have a field day with it.

Maybe they did send out such a statement and the press ignored it, I dunno. But it would be great if Corbyn Labour could be both straight-talking and have a basic level of media savviness

I'm on some mailing lists full of Corbyn supporters, i think they anticipated this and much worse, which I expect may yet come to pass...

Certainly his supporters anticipated it, but it looks like his 'media team' (whatever/whoever this might be) isn't strong/preemptive enough - he has to win some battles in the press if he's not to be a very short-term leader.

This is sterling media work though, trying to reclaim 'patriotism' and turn the (perception of the) issue on its head. Except it needs to be in the Mail or the Mirror:

Upon publishing a strategy to achieve gender equality, entitled Working with Women, Corbyn has pledged that his shadow cabinet would be 50% women, and that he would work towards a gender balanced Parliamentary Labour Party

It's just another register of middle England's absurdist post empire pathology (further to Bake Off, Strictly, Churchill etc). England is like a fidgetting rose-coloured glasses housewife who continues to cook more and more elabourate dinners for the 'wonderful husband' who abandoned her years previously after years of abuse. The more the crown estate is sold off to China and Russia the more we love the monarchy. As the UK's economic and politcial status wanes union jack bunting is decorated in a delusional attempt to re-live the imagined (and it is an imagining a past to a large extent) good times.

I mean 'God save the Queen?' - who on earth can take that seriously?

it really is a storm in a wedgewood china teacup isn't it. i can't see who would genuinely care.

i thought it was interesting that two of the biggest recent corbyn controversies centred on pieces of music though. GSTQ and the red flag.

lol. Dont make me start defending him. There's been some appalling hatchet jobs about him the last while.

Everything I've read by him makes him sound like the sort of notionally anti-war journalist who in fact just fucking loves war, because the more chaos and misery there is the Middle East, the more right it makes him about the wrongness of the Iraq invasion and the incomparable evil of "The West" in general.

Yeah sure. He obviously loves war, which is why he went against 90% of the British and American press and his own newspaper by opposing the Iraq war.

Lot of guff being written about Russia which completely ignores NATO and US provocation and their attempts to neutralise their military threat - going back 2 decades. The fact that Putin is a c*** doesnt change this fact.